GOP Mailing Confuses Voters in Swing States

Wrong addresses, missing information muddle absentee ballot forms
By Drew Nelles,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 18, 2008 7:47 PM CDT
GOP Mailing Confuses Voters in Swing States
Republican presidential candidate John McCain greets supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, today.   (AP Photo)

Republican mass mailings have some swing-state residents confused about their voting status, Miller-McCune reports. Mailers with absentee-ballot applications or requests for updated voter-registration records in at least eight states were either missing information or organized confusingly, which could lead to discounted votes or registration errors.

In Pennsylvania, GOP mailings encouraged residents to vote by absentee ballot, without explaining that state law requires a valid reason for voters to do so. Elsewhere, mailings have directed voters to send ballots to incorrect addresses—sometimes in other states. It’s not clear whether these inaccuracies were deliberate. “We have a large elderly population,” one Florida Democrat said. “These folks, when they get a letter like this, it's very confusing at the very least.” (More Republican Party stories.)

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